Daughter of the Burning City by Amanda Foody

This book has such a cool premise! One girl's make believe family being killed off one by one in a world of fantasy and magic...excellent stuff. And for the most part, it lives up to it! For almost the entirety of this book, I was fully invested in the storyline and I desperately wanted to read more.

Unfortunately, this book seriously suffers in the last third. As more of the solution is revealed, it just becomes confusing in a badly-written way. The identity of the killer was extremely obvious to me, although there is a secondary twist which I didn't see coming and I thought worked very well. Without giving too much away, part of the climax also involves a character which appears so infrequently I genuinely had no idea who they were, despite the narrative trying to tell me it was a big reveal. The result isn't...great.

However, this book is definitely still worth reading. All the characters are extremely well fleshed-out and they're all so unique. I can honestly say this didn't remind me of anything else I've ever read and that can only be a good thing. It also gets major points for representation-the main character is bisexual with an asexual love interest, many of the side characters are also non-hetero and the fantasy city seems suitably diverse in terms of ethnicity too. I was so happy to read such a casual portrayal of an asexual love interest, even if it wasn't quite perfect.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book. The protagonist is interesting and intelligent, the plot really sucks you in and the world-building element is also well done. This is so much better than I was expecting from a YA book and I could not stop talking about it to people whilst I was reading it. No book is perfect but this is certainly up there.

Overall Score:

The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon

Honestly, what can you expect from a book based off a video game? A pretty good horror story it turns out. Five Nights at Freddy's has admittedly always been a game series with a solid plot, if only you bother to look closer. I myself have enjoyed watching countless Youtube videos on the lore, which is why I knew I had to pick this book up. My expectations were extremely low but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does this add valuable insight to the games, it actually stands alone as a reasonably enjoyable story.

Don't get me wrong, the main enjoyment gleamed from this book is the way it sheds light on events from the game. There are many things in here that probably won't make any sense if you have absolutely no knowledge of the games whatsoever, and likewise it explains things that had no explanation in the games themselves. They follow separate continuities (allegedly) but honestly I could fit them together pretty well. It did give me unrealistic hopes for the plot of Sister Location but I'll try not to go too off tangent.

Back to the book as a book, it's a fairly basic horror. The characters are slightly more fleshed out than they needed to be but they are by no means hugely compelling. They have their own personalities though and I did care for them so it managed to do that much. The villain is chilling, as are the animatronics. I will say that there's not much action to be found and that is slightly disappointing. If you want tons of deaths or varied attacks from the Freddy's crew, you're going to be let down. The main threat comes from the springlocks, which was threat enough for me but might not be what people are hoping for. Again, my sense of horror was linked so closely to my knowledge from the games that some of this might be lost if you've never played them. Then again, who is going to read this never having played the games?

Overall, The Silver Eyes is a decent if not groundbreaking book. I've heard complaints that it is too long but it seems a pretty standard length to me. I would definitely recommend it to add some depth to the lore of the games, and for anyone looking for an easy read. A part of me is genuinely excited to read the sequel so they must be doing something right!

Overall Score:

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

Let me start this review by saying this is an extremely well-written book. I want to get that out there because honestly, it's hard for me to articulate what I thought of this book and I want to sing its praises before I seem too negative. All the characters in this book are so compelling and fleshed out and it's because of this that the emotions created are so strong. The author skates dangerously close to 'John Green' syndrome (pretentious characters that don't speak or act like real people) but skilfully manages to avoid it. I spent almost this entire book feeling like it should be irritating me and yet finding myself unable to put it down.

History is All You Left Me is the story of Griff, a gay teenager dealing with the sudden death of his ex-boyfriend and best friend Theo. It addresses his regret at initially ending the relationship when Theo went off to college, as well as his mixed feelings towards Theo's current boyfriend Jackson. This is utterly unlike any other book I have ever read plotwise and that certainly helped it a lot. It also has a very subversive plot compared to typical YA romance. While admittedly I did see most of the 'twists' coming, I probably wouldn't if I were the intended audience and I thought they were handled very cleverly. All the 'twists' were incredibly understated and woven very naturally into the narrative, so that even if I had found them surprising I would not have been rudely jerked out of the story. The fact remains that this book tells the kind of love story not often seen in YA fiction and it felt very mature and realistic because of it. I loved that Griff also got over his first love and had to cope with his guilt about that fact, despite being very close with Theo still.

Aaaaand now for the negatives. As much as I did enjoy this book, there were several elements that felt...off. I absolutely HATED (spoilered though you can guess from the back) the fact that Griff and Jackson slept together. It didn't really seem to fit in with the plot or characters and honestly, I think it's something the author had in mind from the start but didn't adapt once he actually started writing it. I also found it hard to identify with Griff a lot of the time. He just seemed to make bad decision after bad decision with no real self-awareness/attempt to rectify these bad decisions. Having said that, I did enjoy his character a lot. I think the only character that didn't seem all that well-developed was Wayne who was another of the slightly-off elements.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. It is commendable alone for the positive and varied portrayal of LGBT teens/relationships, but it is also so much more than that. A fascinating book and one I will not be forgetting in a hurry.

Overall Score:

The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood

I am having such luck with authors lately! After finding the joy that was Ruth Ware, I was skeptical about how good the next thriller I read would seem in comparison. Fortunately, I picked this beauty up.

The premise of this book is nothing special really. The story follows several different people living in an apartment building, one of which is a serial killer. What makes it special is the writing style and the sheer brilliance of the characters. Again, on the surface they don't seem unique-there's the runaway teen delinquent, the kindly old lady, the weird misfit, the perverted landlord and many more. But every character is well-developed and you genuinely become very invested in their lives and what's going to happen to them next.

This actually helps a lot with one of the book's main issues. It's told in third person but each chapter focuses on a different character. This definitely takes some getting used to (there are a LOT of characters) but the characters are genuinely all quite different and having a unique voice for each of them stops it being the train wreck it could have been otherwise. Apart from that minor hiccup, I couldn't fault the writing style. It was engaging, suspenseful and all without being melodramatic or cheesy. Hey, actual good villain POV chapters! That never happens!

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this book, enough to immediately acquire everything else the author wrote. I consider this her best book for sure and it's the perfect example of how to do a thriller right. Definitely worth a read

Overall Score:

.5

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

It's hard for me to judge which I liked better, this book or In a Dark, Dark Wood. I bought this as soon as I finished the latter and it did not disappoint. This one certainly has a more complex plot but not necessarily in a bad way. I think I liked the main character more or at least, she seemed to be more developed and have more meat to her.

The premise of this book seems simple on the surface-a journalist gets sent on a super fancy cruise as part of her job, only to get sucked into a mystery when she thinks she hears a woman get thrown overboard. The reviews describe this as Agatha Christie-esque but honestly, it's really not. This is not your traditional murder mystery setup and it's much more like a modern thriller. However, this doesn't mean it isn't good,

I must admit, I was not quite as sucked into this book as In a Dark, Dark Wood. That need to finish it quickly wasn't quite as strong, although I still read it across two days. It slumps a little sooner than her previous work too, although slump here means 'was slightly less engaging and still really awesome'. However, the ending really is its saving grace. Again, I was unable to predict what was going to happen and the direction it takes is an intriguing and less obvious one. I loved the reasoning behind everything, even if maybe the second to last bit was a bit directionless.

Again, this is a really solid book from a very satisfying author. I definitely won't be forgetting it anytime soon and really, that's all I ask for from my thrillers. Definitely worth a read and it shouldn't disappoint.

Overall Rating:

.5

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

I have utterly fallen in love with this author. Admittedly, I picked up this book after reading a truly awful thriller so anything would have looked good after that. However, after reading more of her work I am convinced she is the real deal.

In a Dark, Dark Wood is a unique and compelling tale. The premise is a woman gets invited to a hen do in a secluded forest house by her old high school friend who she hasn't spoken to for 10 years. I can't really say anymore without ruining the plot but trust me, it's really good. What's more, it's actually very original. I couldn't tell where this was going at all but I was with it every step of the way, unable to put it down. I read it almost entirely in one sitting and finished it on the same day I started it.

The characters are another strong point of this book. They all seemed like real people and having the majority of them being well-written females was just another bonus. I felt for the main character without her needing to really say much about her pain at all. This is an author who appreciates show don't tell and I am so grateful for that.

My only gripe with it was that it got a little rocky about 3/4 of the way through. It didn't quite drag and it was still very good but it didn't hold my attention in quite the same way. This thankfully gets fixed by the climax and it does finish on a strong point. This is also a perfect example of having a complex and detailed solution without making the setup ridiculously convoluted or hard to follow.

Honestly, I really can't recommend this book or this author enough. In a genre flooded with books ranging from terrible to okay, this is one of the gems. Please please give it a try.

Overall Rating:

.5

Only the Truth by Adam Croft

I almost didn't finish this book. Seriously, that's how dull and uninteresting I found the plot. Not going to lie, the main problem of this book is its protagonist/narrator. It has been a long long time since I read about such a self-centered, stereotypically awful male protagonist. There are two female characters in this book and neither of them matter at all in terms of their character. For the most part, you are stuck listening to this whiny, self-pitying jerk narrate the really quite uneventful plot until the sweet release of the ending frees you.

Maybe it seems like I'm being too harsh. This book seems to be popular enough to be advertised to me on Amazon after all. I however can't find a single thing to say about it that's good. The plot sounds promising enough-the main character finds his wife's body in a hotel he's staying at and, in a fit of panic, runs away with his current lover who works there. But...it's just so bad. His wife is given zero personality and the protagonist mourns her very little. Even then, he only uses sentences like 'How can I possibly put into words how much I miss her?' without actually going on to attempt to tackle that challenge. The lover is slightly better but her character is tainted by constant physical descriptions of how slender and short she is, again seemingly the only thing the main character notices about her at all. She is however the only slightly interesting thing about the whole book which makes it even worse when SHE FREAKING DIES HALFWAY THROUGH.

That is the exact point I almost gave up. I basically skim read the rest of the book and I kid you not, it's just him going from one location to another with nothing worthwhile happening until the climax. Speaking of which, it's so painful. The lover turns out to be the one who killed his wife all along (of course, given that she's the ONLY OTHER CHARACTER) and she did it because...he's a jerk? The main character even acknowledges how little sense this makes, that's how bad it is.

Worst of all, the main character has learned precisely nothing by the end and escapes with no ramifications except a dead wife (we know just how much he cares about that). I actually agree wholeheartedly with the bad guy here and I'm not entirely sure I'm meant to. Aside from the fact she should have killed him rather than his wife, she was 100% right in my eyes. Ultimately, when you actively want the protagonist to suffer horribly, I don't consider that a great book.

Overall Rating:

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

You know, there's a common theme with modern thrillers that almost never ends well because it's been done to death. I am so sick of suspecting the main character or it turning out to have been the main character all along. You might ask then why I'd pick up a book so obviously intended to invoke the 'unreliable narrator' trope-good question. I do actually really enjoy the trope when it's done well. Unfortunately I'm not sure this is a shining example of that.

Sometimes I Lie actually starts off a lot better than I thought it would. Nothing special perhaps but the premise is intriguing enough and it fares better than most thrillers I've read lately. It starts off alternating chapters between present day and before the main character's accident and that's fine, but then flashbacks to her childhood diary also make an appearance and the whole thing gets a bit...crowded. I got fed up pretty quickly due to this but it actually turns out there is a very good reason for their inclusion and so I am more willing to accept them in hindsight.

The best word to describe this book is 'messy'. It has one genuinely good twist which surprised me and was kind of cool, but then it quickly descends into not making much sense. Then it tries to throw in more twists and there is far too much going on at the end which is unconnected to the main story or is too hard to follow. It's not complicated by any means, it's just not interesting enough to get me to focus enough to understand the poorly written reveals. The ending wasn't satisfying and I couldn't help but stop caring at that point. Also, as often happens with these books, the husband might as well have not existed. He had about as much personality as a sheet of paper and had even less influence on the plot.

Overall, this is one thriller that has some interesting potential but manages to ruin it in its attempts to be clever. Not a bad read by any means but hardly a standout in its genre.

Overall Rating:

.5

After the Cure by Deirdre Gould

Is it better to kill your family but you're not in control or kill strangers but have it be your choice?

This is just one of the many interesting questions this book raises. The second I read the blurb, I was hooked on the possibility of where this idea could lead. The premise behind the book is actually really simple-we've cured the zombie apocalypse. It's such an obvious idea and yet I have never read or seen anything which considers it. I was worried this would be one of those books with such a great premise that the actual content could never live up to it. Thankfully, I was plesantly surprised.

Now let me be clear, this book does not fully utilise the great idea behind it. To be honest, I don't think any book could. The main plot suffers a little bit from being too vague and ultimately disappointing, but the two central characters make up for it by being fully-fledged and quite compelling. They represent two sides of the apocalypse-those who were cured and must live with the knowledge of the terrible deeds they did, and those who were immune and...must live with the knowledge of the terrible deeds they did. Again, this could have been explored more but then the plot itself would have been even less focused. There are sequels to this book which may explore things further. However, this book felt quite complete on its own and I'm not sure about seeking them out personally.

Like I said, the main flaw of this is a lack of clarity. Without crossing too much into spoiler territory, the main villain maybe dies at the end. I say maybe because they kind of just stop being mentioned. A side villain (again, this doesn't give much away due to the changing nature of the plot) gets every second of their demise described quite clearly but I think we're just supposed to assume the main character dies at the same time. It's really jarring and probably my least favourite thing about the whole book. It's a little like forgetting to give Voldemort a conclusion.

The plot is the weakest element but on the whole, this is still a really strong story. It managed to do the near-impossible and not make me wish I'd thought of an idea first so I could write it how I wanted to. This was already pretty close to the stuff I would have included. Definitely a must-read if you like stories about morality (and zombies)

Overall Score:

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison

What an utterly compelling book.

The Butterfly Garden tells the haunting story of a serial killer who kidnaps women and keeps them in a secret garden. This book is written beautifully, with most of the narration being told from the point of view of Maya, one of the kidnapped women who has recently been freed. I absolutely adored Maya as a character-she had the right amount of personality and numbness to make her really believable. In fact, I absolutely adored this book in general. It's a fairly simple idea but it's executed brilliantly and the world Hutchison creates just draws you in.

Alas, this book isn't perfect. The ending was a bit flat and not really worth the buildup. The part with Sophia having been in the garden was also not needed and didn't really make much sense as soon as you thought about it. However, the characters on the whole were very strong and as a character-driven story, this works beautifully. I would have liked to have had a bit more focus on Lorraine however. I found her fascinating as an idea but she doesn't get enough actual interactions nor character exploration which is a huge shame. She does feel like a wasted opportunity.

My only other niggle is with the order of the narration. The Garden stuff gets pushed aside to explore Maya's past at the start of the book and honestly, this didn't work for me. I was interested mostly in the Garden at the start and so was frustrated to have to wait so long to get to that part. It would have read better to have her past a little bit later on, once the general premise had been introduced. I also kept wondering why the police were more interested in her than the Garden itself. It didn't really make sense and again, it took away from the atmosphere a little.

On the whole, I really love how this story plays out. It isn't gory, it doesn't glamorise the violence but instead it gives a pretty accurate portrayal of a deeply twisted situation. Maya's straightforward descriptions of the terrible events really help give the impression that she's been through trauma, and it further cements her strong characterization. Definitely worth a read if the blurb intrigues you, though be prepared for a potentially disappointing ending.

Overall Rating:

Follow Me by Angela Clarke

This book has got some nerve.

For 330 pages I stuck with this book. It's not that it's not good or well-written, far from it-I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. It's just that it felt long to read and not much new was happening. It definitely dragged a lot but I was hoping the ending would make it all worthwhile. I should have been smarter.

Not only was the ending not worth it, it royally pissed me off. It ripped off Agatha Christie! Not only that, but the author pointed it out themselves in the same way a comedian might point out how unfunny they are. Newsflash-it doesn't make it okay. It just points out how blatantly unoriginal you are being. Also having someone on the inside do the crime? I've only started reading modern crime recently and I'm already sick of this cliche.

Of course, this book has many other flaws for me to pick at. The weird subplot between Nas and Freddie that never ends up amounting to anything. The total lack of suspects which means the crime element is limited to police investigation, incidentally my least favourite part of the crime genre. Speaking of the police, how can anyone be this unaware of Twitter? The police are presented as total idiots throughout and it's basically an excuse to justify the main character being a part of the plot.

This is lazy writing without any effort. I was going to give it kudos for at least having interesting characters and a reasonably compelling narrative voice but it's not worth it after the total ripoff of an ending. Do yourself a favour and just read Christie-she did it much better.

Overall Rating:

.5

Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

This book is extremely well done. I don't necessarily mean well-written, although it is that too. But seriously, how many authors could make a book like this work? How many could make a character who regularly sleeps with other people's boyfriends into not only a likeable, but a sympathetic one?

Mercedes is one of the most complex and compelling characters I've ever seen in YA fiction. I totally got what was going on inside her head at any given moment which is very impressive considering she spends most of the book making the wrong choice. Even though the plot is fairly predictable, there are plenty of new elements to stop it feeling samey. I must admit, I didn't care much for Faye. Something about her was...off. I didn't get her the same way I got the other characters. Angela's boyfriend also gets demonized to a ridiculous degree, although I am glad they didn't make it a rape thing.

Having said that, this book is a weird one and I can get why people might not like it. I've seen a lot of arguments as to whether this book is sex-positive or not and honestly, I don't really know the answer. Angela is not portrayed as wrong for wanting to wait until marriage and Mercedes does enjoy sex when she's doing it for the right reasons. Ultimately I'd say it is more sex-positive and definitely more frank about sex than many other YA novels and I can only see that as a good thing. It's maybe not the portrayal of someone who enjoys sex and so has a lot of it that some people wanted to see, but it's complex and I'm not sure that's what the author really wanted to do anyway. I always put story before messages and this one has a story that I very much enjoyed. I would highly recommend giving it a try if the blurb intrigues you.

Overall Rating:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I don't think I like this book.

I say 'think' because admittedly, I'm not entirely sure. I really wanted to like it, or maybe I felt like I should. Ultimately though I have to be honest and I feel Brave New World falls flat in what it's trying to do.

Okay, my first reason is probably the most 'controversial' but honestly, I don't see the future world as being all that bad. Obviously it is bad in comparison to the real world, I'm not an idiot. But in comparison to other dystopias? Everyone is happy and those who aren't get sent somewhere else to be with a whole bunch of other people like them. Not killed, not brainwashed or imprisoned. Just sent away to live their lives how they please. Again obviously, the constant drugging, biological manipulation of the lower classes and lack of art or science are all terrible things. I do not want to live in this world by any means but I think the sex part is what is supposed to be so awful about it and honestly, that makes the book come across as dated and diminishes its impact.

My second issue is with the characters. In the entire book, the only characters I kind of liked were Lenina, Linda and Helmholtz. Bernard was okay but I could not stand John at all. I think my dislike of John is one of the reasons I can't quite see this as a terrible world. He was so pretentious and utterly joyless that, when presented as the alternative, he doesn't make a very good argument for it. It also makes it harder for me to agree with any of his arguments, no matter how valid they are. His treatment of Lenina is appalling and I did not find him particularly sympathetic. The crush angle also seemed repetitive to me as Bernard's crush on Lenina and John's crush were pretty similar in terms of how they fit into the plot and both played the same purpose narratively.

However, the thing I disliked the most was how unsubtle this book was. Characters literally have long discussions about the theme of the book and it feels like the author is whacking you in the face with it. I do not like books which are purely a vessel for a certain message and while this book was too well-written and developed to be just that, it came dangerously close.

Honestly though, there were a lot of good things about this book. I think I like projecting my own interpretation of the story more than I like the actual story itself. Like John-the whole part where he pleads for the right to be unhappy feels like it should be really meaningful and in my head now, it is. But when I was reading it, I felt nothing but weariness. I think this book has a lot to say but its execution lets it down, which is weird because it is well-written. Something is missing but I'm not sure what. For the first time ever, I'm not going to rate this book because I honestly have no idea what to rate it on. My review probably sounds a lot more negative than I feel and this book will certainly stick with me if nothing else.